northernvicarwalks July and August

My hope was to walk 1,000 miles this year. By the end of June I had walked 355 miles. I planned to make it up while on holiday, and failed. By the end of July I had walked 396 miles. By the end of August I had walked 434 – here are a few August photos which aren’t necessarily walking! My 55th birthday party on the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, with fish and chips afterwards.

Later in the month I had a Sunday afternoon walk to Duffield, photographing on the line.

David Redfern, one of our organists at St Edmund’s, is a man of great versatility. On Sunday 20 August, 26 of us went up to his home in Belper to enjoy a concert on his Compton organ. This organ was installed at the Plaza Cinema in Crosby, just north of Liverpool, on 2 September 1939. The following day War broke out, so the cinema was opened and closed in just one day! Fortunately it reopened soon after, and the organ remained there until 1974. It then went to Chester, and came to David’s house in Belper in 1988. David told us that Derby Cathedral organ is also a Compton, and would have been in the workshop at the same time. Their organ does not have bells, whistles, cymbals and other percussion instruments. We had an hour’s concert, with a great range of music. “The Whistler and his dog” by Arthur Pryor, told the sad story of the demise of a favourite pet – with all the bells and whistles we needed, and “Coronation Scot” by Vivian Ellis kept me happy. We also had a wonderful medley of songs from “Top Hat” by Irving Berlin.

I did manage a walk on Wednesday 23 August. 4 miles from the Okeover Arms in Mapleton (north of Ashbourne) up the River Dove to Coldwall Bridge and back. Must go back and visit the church (it was locked by this time of the evening). Very nice pub supper afterwards.